


Girls are Confusing

by Cutdreg



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:47:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27990246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cutdreg/pseuds/Cutdreg
Summary: Percy and Annabeth work out some mixed up feelings at the end of "Battle of the Labyrinth".
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Girls are Confusing

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Going through some mixed up shit myself atm and seeing this in my list of things I'm working on genuinely hurt lmao.
> 
> It's not finished and I know the writing style is off but I couldn't bring myself to keep working at it.
> 
> Maybe I'll come back to it one day.

I sighed a heavy sigh as I trudged up to the top of Thalia’s hill.

I may, or may not, have just been breaking camp curfew to go and sit by the sea for a while. The silvery moonlight, calm ocean waves lapping against the shore, the smell of salt on the air... It was so serene. Perhaps this was because the gods in charge of the moon and the sea were some of the only ones that didn’t actively want to destroy me. Most of the others did, well, some were still on the fence. Which I suppose was a good thing. 

I looked out across the rolling expanse of the camp, it was my home and tonight was one of the last night’s I would be able to see it. 

See, it was almost the end of summer, which meant by the end of the week I would be leaving camp behind and returning to the mortal world to go back to school. 

I thumbed the new bead on my necklace, tracing the lines of the intricate maze absentmindedly as I scanned the horizon. 

So much had happened this year, the 'Quest for Daedalus' as people were calling it had changed a lot of things. 

Sure, the Titan Lord Kronos was back, and in the body of Luke Castellan... That was sort of a big one. But somehow I found other things to be concerned about. Things much more fickle and deadly than a mere Titan Lord. 

Girls. 

I had broken curfew to get to the beach, to clear my head and think about girls.

I know, it’s dumb. But hey, I couldn’t sleep okay!

Annabeth and I had always been friends. Sort of. Okay I think she hated me a little at first, but then we were friends after that. 

But anyways, she had saved my sorry ass more times than I could count, and I’m sure she wouldn’t admit it but I’d helped her out of some tough spots too along the road. But now something had changed. We were dancing around each other, like someone sprinkled a little extra awkward into the mix whenever we were close to each other.

The worst part was, everyone else seemed to be in on it! People would snicker whenever I messed up my words talking to her, or whenever she stormed off in a huff after starting an argument with me about nothing! I asked and I asked, but I got nothing. 

Not even Beckendorf gave me a hint after he and I beat Athena’s cabin in a chariot race. She seemed double mad at me, and even sweeter with him! 

“Man, if I could explain I would Perc, but even I can’t solve this one for you” he chuckled, shaking his head as he turned his attention back to his bronze horse. 

Even just thinking back on the situation made my head fuzzy and confused again. 

Plus, there was the whole thing with Calypso. Oh, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the mortal girl who’s phone number I had memorised.

Why was all this stuff so confusing?! 

I could have sworn I heard a giggle coming from the Aphrodite cabin as I snuck back into camp between Harpy patrols.

I closed the door as quietly as I could, Tyson had already made his way down to the Cyclops forges. He said he wanted to be there when his friends down there saw Briares for the first time. But he had promised he would be back for my birthday, which was nice of him.

The trickling of the fountain in the corner of my cabin eventually sent me to sleep. And, of course, the dreams found me yet again. 

The dream was much less cohesive than normal, but the scenes were all too familiar. 

First I was in the back of a chariot with Annabeth, we crossed the line and won the race! The crowd cheered, but the sound all fell away as Annabeth planted a little kiss on my cheek.

The world melted away and we were in the labyrinth under Zeus’s fist, the first time we discovered that entrance. Annabeth’s hand slipped into mine in the darkness, we were scared, but we had each other so we knew we would be fine. 

The darkness lit up, we were dancing awkwardly in Westover Hall, I felt the devastating loss as Annabeth disappeared over the cliff, and the absolute joy of having her back. We finished our dance back on Olympus. I savoured every moment, knowing that she was safe again. 

Then the world seemed to set on fire as I found myself hiding back in Hephaestus’s forge under Mount St Helens. Annabeth kissed me.

“Be careful, Seaweed Brain.” 

The words echoed in my mind as the dream came to an end, and my eyes fluttered open. 

“Percy! You awake in there? Hellooo!” a voice called from outside my door, before pounding on it a few times. 

“Yeah” I shouted back groggily, I knew I recognised the voice but my brain was still half asleep and couldn’t put a name to it. 

I hopped out of my bunk and stumbled to the door, throwing it open as I rubbed my eyes.

“Uhm. Chiron wanted to know if you could take Archery with us. He’s busy this afternoon... So...”

It turns out that Malcolm from Athena cabin was at my door... And a few steps behind him, the rest of Athena cabin stood. And they were all staring at me. 

Annabeth’s face flushed completely red as she turned on a heel and made towards the archery range angrily. Her siblings gave a few snickers and giggles before following suit, leaving Malcolm at my door, waiting awkwardly for a response.

It was only now, that I realised I was only wearing my underwear that I had slept in.

BAM.

I slammed the door in Malcolm’s face. I didn’t mean to be rude but I was suddenly very self conscious as I had just given the girl I was literally dreaming about moments ago and all of her siblings a peep show. Perfect.

“Sure, Malcolm. I’ll be with you in like, 2 minutes.” I shouted through the door as I splashed some salt water on my face, and grabbed some clean(ish) clothes.

“Uhm. Okay.” Malcolm called, as he too turned and made his way to the archery range.

\--- 

“Ah. Here’s out guest. And with clothes too! An added bonus.” Chiron said sarcastically as I jogged up to the archery range. I managed to hide my blush behind a very sarcastic smile aimed at him.

“Shame.” I heard someone whisper as I looked around, eager to find the perpetrator so I could take out my morning frustration with riptide real quick. 

It would seem that Annabeth found them first as I heard a giggle cut short by a heavy slapping sound. Annabeth’s face practically glowed red as she tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

The archery lesson progressed fairly easily from there. Apart from when one of Annabeth’s sisters tried to trick me by pointing between my feet and claiming to have seen a snake. This somehow got giggles from most everyone else, but I had never really been afraid of snakes so I just continued with my shot. 

Archery never failed to make me feel useless, so after that I decided to hit the sword arena to boost my morale. I waited patiently for Ares cabin to clear out. They would usually have tried to start some kind of fight but Mrs O’Leary quickly scared them all to the other side of the arena as she bounded over to say hello.

We played fetch with a bronze should for a while before she let me train a little on my own.

I hacked and slashed at various training dummies, I was getting stronger and faster with every day training at camp. So soon enough my shirt was soaked with sweat under the mid morning sun and I discarded it, and kept on practicing. 

My ears were buzzing and I was gasping for air as my training session came to an end. 

“Need a sparing partner?” Annabeth’s voice called across the arena as she drew her knife. 

I smiled at her but shook my head as I continued to pant. 

“Nah I think I’m good, I’m just about finished.” 

“Oh, okay. You’re scared you’ll lose, I get it.” Annabeth said, cocking one hip and checking her nails sarcastically. 

That was it. 

I dumped my canteen of water over my head, the water revitalising my like a full night’s sleep as I uncapped riptide and stepped towards Annabeth. 

She was on the back foot as I pressed my advantage, she tried to cut in close but I hopped back, keeping her at range with riptide. 

We danced around the arena for a few minutes. We traded thrusts and parries, we blocked and we dodged. We were both very familiar with each others moves and fighting styles so it was more of a battle of stamina than skill. I had the longer, heavier blade which meant every attack cost me more than Annabeth’s would, but she had to dodge and block much heavier attacks so was moving more than I was. In a sudden attempt to catch me off guard, Annabeth parried my blade and leapt straight at me. She threw her whole weight directly into me instead of stepping back like she had been doing previously. 

Instinctively I dropped my sword to the ground and threw my arms around her. I twisted with all the energy I had left, putting Annabeth under me so I would land on top of her and in control. I caught our weight with one hand, so I didn’t crush her, and then managed to knock her dagger away. We wrestled for a moment but my training paid off as I pinned both of Annabeth’s hands to the floor above her head, and sat straddled across her thighs so that she couldn’t move. 

“Gotcha.” I panted, our faces were only inches away from each other. She held a completely comfortable eye contact with me, and I wasn’t sure what it was but I was sure j could feel some invisible force pushing our heads closer together. 

“Admit defeat, wise girl.” I said, almost losing myself in her inquisitive stormy grey eyes. 

“What if I don’t want to...” Annabeth almost whispered. Her breath smelled like peppermint gum, which, for some reason, I immediately started craving in that moment. 

Then, my blood turned to ice in my veins. 

Annabeth’s face turned a dangerous shade of red, I could feel the heat rising off of her blush and it was alarmingly similar to Mt St Helens erupting around me.

“My, my, my! What have we here?” Selina Beauregard’s voice rang out across the arena. 

I immediately let go of Annabeth’s wrists and sat up straight. I can only imagine how incriminating my face looked right there.

“You guys are lucky the rest of my cabin are always late to sword practice. Especially with the rumours today Mr Jackson.” She said, her eyes very obviously trailing down my naked torso to the front of my shorts. Okay, looking back it was fairly obvious and I should have picked up on it but at the time all I could hear was my own heartbeat pounding in my ears. 

“Uhm, we were just.” I began, before a perfectly placed punch to the gut had me laying in the foetal position on the ground next to a very flustered Annabeth. She stood up and grabbed her knife from the ground. 

“You got distracted. I won.” Annabeth muttered as she left the arena without another word, and without even acknowledging Silena. 

A shadow fell over me as Silena stood over me and held out a hand. She hauled me up to my feet, holding back a giggle.

“We were just practicing, it wasn’t...” I said to Silena as I very quickly realised I still wasn’t wearing my shirt. 

Silena cut me off, “Percy, I’m a daughter of Aphrodite, I know what was happening. Even if you don’t”

The word “you” was very pointed, as if she was talking about me specifically, not the pair of us. 

“Besides, you guys make a cute couple.” Silena said nonchalantly as she raised her canteen to her lips to take a sip.

I got caught halfway into my shirt as I put it back on, but I managed to fight my way through it and pull the garment down.

“Oh no, we aren’t... It’s not” I tried to explain but Silena cut me off with an ‘Are you serious?’ look, the canteen paused just before her lips, and one eyebrow raised.

“Okay, what?” Silena sounded almost outraged. 

“All those missions away, and the two of you never?... You know... Did something to pass the time?” Silena said, sounding genuinely confused. 

“Nope.” I replied quickly, desperate to get out of that situation at any cost. 

“But, the way she acted when we all thought you were dead...” Silena seemed lost in thought as she held one hand to her chin.

“I mean, we were all sad of course” she hastened to add, “But Annabeth was inconsolable. She barely ate, she sat out of all of her cabins activities... I could have sworn you two had something going on?” Silena said, the statement almost begging for more information.

“There was a good luck kiss” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

“What! Wait” Silena grabbed a helmet from a training dummy and held it between her hands just in front and above her own face.

“Muah. Good luck! Like that?” she asked, standing on her tiptoes and giving the helmet a small peck on one cheek. 

“Or more like this?” She said, turning back to her helmet stand in and pulling it down to her height. She ‘kissed’ the helmet where the lips would be for around ten seconds before pulling back and holding the helmet back up to its original height, “Good luck.” She said, more affectionately this time.

Once her act was finished, Silena turned back to me, demanding an answer with a stern stare.

“Uhm. The second one?” I replied hesitantly, I could feel the blush creeping up my chest and on to my face. 

With more than enough time to spare, I ducked under the helmet that Silena had now thrown at my head. 

“Oh. My gods. Go talk to her!! Idiot!” Silena shouted as she shooed me out of the arena. 

“Wha? But? Whaddo I say?!” I asked as Silena planted a foot in the middle of my back and firmly kicked me out of the arena. 

“Are you for real?!! I swear, boys are just so dumb!” Silena said, shaking her head as she turned and walked back into the arena. 

I turned and slowly walked back towards the cabins contemplatively.

I saw the rest of the Aphrodite cabin walking past, finally getting to their arena practice. There were stuffed giggles and pointing fingers but I was too lost in thought to care.

I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of what to say. My mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour. All the memories of mine and Annabeth’s adventures, flooding back to me. 

Not necessarily the big fights, the almost dying parts, or the saving the world parts. Just the us parts. Annabeth accidentally laying against me in the labyrinth, or how excited she was in the St Louis arch, or the look on her face when she first opened Deadalus’s laptop. 

I shook my head and realised I was stood by my cabin door. I was about to open the door and head in when a flicker caught my eye.

It was Annabeth.

She was sat cross legged by the lake. The laptop was open in front of her but she was staring off into the distance. 

I steeled myself. I had surely faced harder challenges than this... 

I took a whole step towards her before my brain completely gave up and I stopped dead, turned around and walked back towards my cabin

No. 

I had to go. 

I turned back in her direction and made it almost halfway there before I panicked and turned to leave again. 

“Oh hey Percy.” I heard a loud voice call out. The voice was deep and full, almost like someone had intended for his voice to carry far.

I turned and saw Beckendorf heading my way, probably heading towards his cabin. He smiled devilishly at me and then his eyes flicked several times towards Annabeth who thankfully hadn’t noticed me.

I held a finger into my lips and tried to back up, signaling to Beckendorf that I did not want to be seen. 

He completely ignored it. 

“Percy! Hey, you know, I was just thinking about you Percy! I wanted to say, just uhm...” He slowly ran out of things to say as he called my name louder and louder each time. 

He placed a large hand on my shoulder. These hands were used to shaping bronze and forging magical weapons and contraptions. It was safe to say I was going wherever Beckendorf wanted me to, as his vice like grip steered me slowly towards Annabeth. 

“Anyways, catch you later Percy!” he said, once we were only 15 or so feet from her. This time she snapped out of her stare and her eyes locked onto me as Beckendorf gave me one last shove towards her and left without another word. 

“ugh.” Was the only response I got out of Annabeth as she turned back to the laptop, as if I was somehow distracting her from the work she hadn’t been doing. 

“Hey.” I managed. 

I had absolutely no game plan, at all. I didn’t know what to say at all! Silena had just told me to talk to her about anything and I was failing at that. 

I slowly sat down next to her. Far enough away that I wasn’t directly distracting her, but close enough that she could tell I wanted to talk. 

“Hey.” She replied, around 30 seconds after me. 

“So...” I began, with no idea where I was taking it.

Without even looking up from her laptop Annabeth replied with a halfhearted “Uh huh”

There was an uncomfortable silence that lasted way too long until I let out a frustrated chuckle. 

“When did it get so awkward? What happened?” I asked, exasperated. It was a mortifying question but I was fairly certain that it wouldn’t get an answer so I didn’t panic too much.

“Why don’t you go and ask Calypso, on magical fantasy love island. Or your mortal friend.” Annabeth snapped almost immediately, her eyes never leaving the laptop screen, but I hadn’t seen her push any buttons or anything in a while. 

My head span at her answer. If anything I was now even more confused. So confused I was starting to get angry. Not at her, just at... The universe, I guess. 

“What? How is that even fair?” I asked, turning to face her properly but she refused to meet my gaze, but I was on a roll now so I didn’t stop for an answer. 

“First of all, Rachel wouldn’t care that things are awkward between us, she just wants to know what’s going on. She is a mortal, you’re right. But she can see our world, sometimes even better than we can. Wouldn’t that be terrifying?” I didn’t know where this anger or the points I were making were coming from, perhaps I had just bottles them up for a while and that was how things were so awkward? I didn’t have time to ponder my own question as words kept flowing out of my mouth.

“And besides. I can’t go back to Ogygia. My one chance to escape the prophecy, to not have the fate of the world balancing in my hands. I didn’t take it, all because I wanted to get back to you.” This got her attention, as her eyes immediately left the laptop screen and met mine with an air of uncertainty.

“Oh sure, I bet I was all you thought about. Is calypso as pretty as they say, by the way?” she asked sarcastically. Evidently she had some bottled up emotions to let lose as her tone was more vicious than she might have intended. 

“I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you to know that I have no idea what they say about her, but I’d bet it doesn’t do her justice. Or the island. It’s gorgeous Annabeth, she was gorgeous too, like nothing we had ever seen on all our adventures.” It was true, and Annabeth’s face twisted in confusion as I admitted it to her, she looked ready to hit me as tears welled in her eyes.

“But like I said, I turned all that down. I gave myself time to think about it but there was never a way I could justify not knowing if you made it out. If you succeeded on your quest. Sure, I thought once or twice about Grover and Tyson. But never once about my mom, certainly not about my dad and the other Olympians. It was you. Every morning when I woke up, before I went to sleep, as I looked over the beautiful gardens and endless stretch of glittering lake... All I could think of was you. Had you made it out of the volcano? Had I given you enough time to escape before I summoned the ocean in the middle of a volcano just so I might have a chance at seeing you again, however slim it was. I couldn’t risk living forever without knowing. I couldn’t have gone another day without knowing if you were okay.” 

Tears were forming in her eyes and I had to fight myself to not break this streak I was on and wipe her eyes and tell her I didn’t mean to make her cry.

“So I came back. And you can barely even stand to be around me anymore. So I guess I’ll just go back to my cabin.” I said, sounding dejected but I had run out of things to say and honestly, venting that much emotion all at once was super tiring. 

“Percy...” Annabeth whispered as I stood up to walk away, back to my cabin.

“Percy...” she said a little louder as she stood too and grabbed my hand weakly, as she blinked back the tears. 

“I was so worried...” She said, her voice still quite and weak. It hurt me to see her this way, she was usually so confident, I could usually see the gears turning behind her gorgeous grey eyes. But now all I saw was the hurt. The hurt that I had caused.

“I know. I’m sorry.” I said, my voice sounding as quiet and defeated.

I tentatively pulled her into a hug, which she readily accepted. She pushed her face into the crook of my neck, and held me tighter and tighter, as if I might disappear in the breeze if she didn’t.

I held on tight too, Annabeth seemed to respond well to the tightening hug. Her hair smelled of something, sweet and fragrant. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I was more than happy to stand here for the rest of time by the lake with Annabeth safe in my arms, and figure it out.

“I’m sorry Annabeth.” I said, after a minute or so of comfortable silence.

“I’m such an asshole.” I was still speaking quietly, almost directly into her ear.

“I know you are, Seaweed Brain.” She said back quietly. She was so close I could feel her breath, warm against my neck as she rolled her head onto my shoulder in an attempt to look back at towards my face. 

She pulled out of the hug first, but kept her arms around me as she looked at me. I kept my arms there too, trying to gently pull her closer. 

I wanted to kiss her, honestly I did. But there was still a part of me that hesitated. What if this ruined everything, what if I lost the best friend I had ever had because I tried to kiss her? What if I had to go the rest of my life, how ever short that may be, without Annabeth by my side. All because I tried to kiss her now, in this moment. 

She broke eye contact with me and tilted her head down a little, looking at my lips. A few seconds later, she looked up at me, her head still tilted down just a little so her big grey puppy dog eyes were looking up at me.

I kissed her. 

I couldn’t help myself. I may as well have taken my brain out and tossed it into the lake for the naiads to play with for a while because it wasn’t doing much right now except for short circuiting. 

The kiss was magical, better than the feeling of being out on the open waves with an adventure waiting before you. Better than the thrill of hunting and battling monsters, more addicting than the unlimited platinum pass at the lotus hotel and casino. I hoped it would never end. 

Unfortunately it did. We pulled apart, our arms still wrapped around each others backs. We stared at each other, panting slightly. 

Annabeth giggled a little at the big dumb smile on my face. I tried to hold my own laughter back but I couldn’t. 

We both broke into fits of laughter.

All the tension between us dissolved. All of the awkwardness and the uncertainty, all of the “What ifs” and “if onlys” were cast from our minds. We were together now, for better or worse, we were together. 

And I’m pretty sure it would take more than a pesky Titan Lord and the armies of hell he was sure to unleash to take us apart again.


End file.
